User Comments - Fiona@ChinesePod

Posted on: Long Leg, Short Leg

Hi BusyBee,

As I mentioned in the podcast, podiatry is an upcoming speciality here. It’s not uncommon for people to have not heard of Podiatry or foot related ailments. (I myself have only recently heard of Podiatry both in English/Chinese, and only because a close friend had bunions 拇指外翻.) Many hospitals simply don’t have a ‘foot doctor’ on board. In the absence of a podiatrist people usually go see 骨科 (orthopaedics). Different hospitals also organise their departments differently. Thus, podiatry can be put in different departments and present itself in different linguistic forms. ie. 足外科 “foot surgery department” 手足外科 “hand and foot surgery department” 足踝（外）科 “foot and ankle (surgery) department”.

One of our users requested this lessons, they didn’t specify where in China they were moving to. We thought it would be best to give a term that would be the most common denominator and a general term for podiatry - 足科. (we didn’t want to limit it to the above terms)

It would be great if you let us Poddies know what the podiatrists is called at your local hospital :)

Posted on: The Cycling Holiday

Hey Kirkcowgill, we've re-recorded it and updated the "ren2". Thanks for highlighting that :) (ChinesePod Admin will delete tech related posts 24hrs after the issue has been resolved)

Posted on: Is Home Cooking Safer?

Hey veronique21, thanks for spotting that. It is a second tone for 不见得. We've updated the docs. Cheers.

Posted on: House Hunting

Cheers waterbear, it's fixed now :)

Posted on: Does It Suit Me?

Hi Matt, both can be used to discuss the material that the clothing is made out of. Almost interchangeably. (my personal 习惯 is 材质) ie:

这衣服的面料很不错!

这衣服的材质很不错!

However, there are subtle differences, or rather, secondary associations that come to my mind when I hear the two words:

面料: I think of type of fabric or the actual piece of cloth that its made out of (like the huge piece of cloth)

材质: I think of how it feels in my hands, more the texture.

Hope that helps :)

Fi

Posted on: Does It Suit Me?

Thanks for the comments :) we'll be working on improvements for the next int lesson.

Posted on: Meditation

Hey Kamillo,

I followed your steps regarding the technical issues you were having in the app. Am I correct to say that what you are referring to is after you click "breakdown", then click the vocab again, then click glossary, then it lead to somewhere odd. (The breakdown on the app is the hover over defs right?)

As we have such a huge bank of vocabulary it can sometimes cause tech issues on the app. From my layman's understanding of website databases, chinesepod has a huge back end and our tech team are working hard to organise and streamline it. The app does have a few issues and I have brought this to the tech team's attention.

As an alternative solution, I have gone into the system and updated the hover over translation of 修养 to 'to train or self cultivate" and 使 to 'to enable'. The breakdowns/hover over definitions are usually auto generated by the system. But I have asked the translators to go in and edit them to make sure they are more context specific, especially in the recent lessons.

We will indeed work on improving our communication. In future, should you have tech questions we encourage you to email support@chinesepod.com or email me directly at fiona@chinesepod.com. It can be a little difficult to track each comment on the messages boards, (I myself try and check as much as I can during the week in between tasks).

Re. stopping podcast production. As podcasts are our main service offering this wouldn't be a route that a lot of our users would like us to take, as I'm sure you can understand. In fact, we have a lot of requests for different levels in different topics. My mum used to say “書怎麼讀的完呢？” when I told her that I had 'finished studying'. In that spirit we hope to continue different aspects of Mandarin learning in each level.

We sincerely hope to see you back at chinesepod again. I think you might enjoy the recent lessons :) If there is anything that I can do personally, just give me a shout!

Fi

Posted on: Pricey Parking

Hey busybee,

Your question regarding 临停 （an abbreviation of 临时停车）is not entirely different to your questions re. 警局 and 警察局 a while back. In mandarin we often use abbreviations and abbreviations are actually frequently found in news headlines（and/or come from news headlines).

As you advance in Mandarin you will find more and more abbreviations that native speakers use in day to day conversations that you can't find in the dictionary. (so news searches are sometimes better at higher levels).

Here at Chinesepod we hope to highlight some phrases or colloquial rules that you might come across when speaking to Mandarin speakers or reading the news.

Here are some common examples of abbreviations:

海归 -- 从海外归国

峰会 -- 各国领袖高峰会

交警 -- 交通警察

称 -- 声称

疯抢 -- 疯狂抢购

公交车--公共交通车

Bejing News Link: 北京公交车追尾违规临停轿车http://news.qq.com/a/20130617/000509.htm

(In Bejing 临停 may also mean 临时停牌 - a provisional suspension of a company's licence. But of course, in the context of today's conversation, this would not be the case.)

Posted on: Don't You Know How To Drive!

Thank you very much for your feedback!

1) I'm really happy you enjoyed the three person format. We encouraged Gwilym to ask genuine questions or explore things he's struggling with, as Native speakers sometimes don't pick up on the things that learners find difficult or bizarre . We would like to incorporate a stronger voice of 'the learners. That’s why all your questions are invaluable to us and we will try and incorporate user questions re: language into the language of the lessons (as well as Qing Wen of course).

2) Re: level of this lesson please see my response above.

3) Constance and myself will most certainly focus on Standard Mandarin. Being language teachers we are aware that there are regional differences in any major language and what we hope is to be able to provide our students with is a breadth of useful linguistic tools. So that you can use the language which ever direction you go, whether it be North, South, East or West.

Constance has been teaching Mandarin professionally for over ten years and has taught in top institutions in Beijing, Taiwan and the US.

Myself, while nowhere near as experienced as Constance, am passionate about second language instruction. I draw from my four years of Teaching English as a Foreign language and I try and apply what I learnt in the classroom on the podcast as well as my experience of being raised bilingual. Being British and teaching American English, I am conscious of the subtleties of regional language. I would never enforce British terms, rather, highlight how things might be misinterpreted i.e. the old pants/pants joke.

I love languages and am passionate about Mandarin instruction. I will try my very best to provide you all with the best learning/podcasting experience possible. 请多多指教！

Posted on: Don't You Know How To Drive!

Hey Pauligee, thank you very much for your feedback. We'll def slow down. I'm so sorry, I accidentally clicked 'edit' instead of 'reply', when first replying to your comment. Feel free to repost if you want. But we've taken your advice on board.